During his postgame news conference, Brady was very careful not to let reporters or cameras see his hand, mostly keeping it in the pocket of his sweater.

At the time, he insisted that his hand felt “perfect,” and on Monday he reiterated that when it comes to his overall health, he is fine.

“I feel great. For this time of year, I feel exceptional,” Brady said during his weekly appearance on WEEI. “I don’t have anything that affects anything I’m doing out on the field. Whatever it is, our lack of play on offense is more a lack of execution than anything. We’ll focus on that this week and try to go out there and try to get to 7-2.

“I know it hasn’t been perfect, and there’s a lot of things that we need to do better. But at the same time, we’re in a pretty good position in our division.

“We’ve just got to go out there and be able to try to see if we can make a lot of improvements here in the second half of the year.”

Brady also said that he’d “never get into how I feel.”

On Saturday, the Patriots released photos of players interacting with visitors from the Make A Wish program, and Brady had the middle and ring fingers of his right hand taped together.

He was listed on the injury report last week for the first time this season, but it was with a right shoulder designation.

Blowing in the wind

During his Monday morning conference call, coach Bill Belichick mentioned the wind conditions inside Gillette Stadium, and how they played a factor, particularly in the kicking game but also, to a lesser extent, in the passing game.

One case when the wind came into play for the Patriots was at the end of the third quarter.

Belichick called a timeout before the end of the quarter, essentially to ensure that Stephen Gostkowski would be kicking a relatively long field goal attempt into the south end zone uprights and not the open end of the stadium, where the wind was trickier.

“We were at that point where we were in field goal range but it was a long field goal, and we felt like if we changed ends of the field then that field goal range might not be there, as evidenced by when we went for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter, going into the wind in a similar field-position situation,” Belichick explained.

Gostkowski made the 48-yard field goal, giving the Patriots the lead for the first time, 20-17.

No comment

On Sunday night, Massachusetts State Police served Dolphins center Mike Pouncey, a former teammate and roommate of Aaron Hernandez, with a grand jury subpoena as he was headed for the team bus.

Asked if he, any members of his coaching staff, or players have been subpoenaed, Belichick declined to comment.

“I talked about that at the beginning of the season,” said Belichick. “It’s an ongoing legal situation and I don’t have any comment on it. I can’t make any.”